Best Branded Social Community

Agency: Affinitive

Brand: Random House Children's Books

Executives Involved in The Campaign: Warren Ackerman – EVP & Principal/Affinitive

Patrick Courtney – Account Director/Affinitive

Margot Wood – Community Manager

Rob Marscher – VP of Engineering/Affinitive

Sloan Mergler - Software Engineer/Affinitive

Linda Leonard – Director of New Media/Random House

Sonia Nash – Social Media Manager/Random House

Campaign Brief: Challenges

• Random House had no platform to directly engage with the consumer segment they were selling to. Relied solely on “traditional” advertising channels

• Fighting for audience with other publishers’ teen book divisions as well as 3rd party niche communities

• Finding ways to consistently provide engagement and fresh content to consumers who are fickle and difficult to engage

• As audience grows older (from teens to young adults), must provide an experience that will resonate with both 13 and 20 year-olds

Objectives

• Create a highly engaged and passionate network of teenage readers and aspiring authors built around Random House titles

• Empower and educate these readers with tools, information and incentives to facilitate word-of-mouth endorsement and advocacy for titles

• Provide an innovative method to connect authors with a highly targeted group of teen readers

• Drive sales of Random House teen titles by transforming the way books are marketed

Solution – Random Buzzers

Random Buzzers is Random House's platform to engage and connect with its teen audience. The community-based program facilitates an ongoing dialogue between the publisher and its authors with readers, while allowing like-minded consumers to share their passion with each other. Members can engage directly with authors, receive advance copies of books, share and create content, write reviews, answer quizzes and polls, and connect and share with other passionate teen readers via social networking features.

Content and Engagement Strategy

Random Buzzers focuses on frequent, consistent and dynamic content, including:

• Weekly community Q&A with authors

• User-Generated Content activities

• Contests, weekly book giveaways, and exclusive members-only opportunities

• Member “bookshelves”, book reviews, and reader/author profiles

• "Buzz Blog" with news and happenings

• Weekly email newsletters

Advocacy Levers

• Insider Access to Authors

• Education on Publishing Industry and how to become a writer

• Community of high-quality, like minded teen readers

• Curation & Co-creation of content and consumer experience

Connecting Authors with Teen Readers

• Featured Authors: Featuring a new author each week gives members an opportunity to learn more about their favorite writers or perhaps discover someone new.

• Q&A: As each author visits, members are given the opportunity to ask questions through an interactive Q&A interface that serves as an ongoing knowledge repository.

• ARC Giveaways: Each week, members get a chance to win an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of a Random House title.

• Author Events: The events section highlights when and where authors are touring. Members can find events based on their favorite genre or by typing in an author's name or book title.

Activities and Rewards

Activities

Activities are fun, challenging, creative tasks that members participate in, such as creating artwork, writing, and uploading photos showing off their passion and personal interests. Galleries collect and show off member submissions, which are commented on and rated by others.

Buzz Bucks

Members earn social currency called “Buzz Bucks” for participating and engaging within the community. Buzz Bucks can be redeemed for rewards such as books and merchandise. Additionally, a user level system and badges are used to provide different level of status/achievement among members.

Taking the Experience Mobile

The Random Buzzers iPhone app lets members take the entire Random buzzers experience mobile. The experience has been tailored to provide quick access to popular features such as forums, book reviews, member bookshelves, along with integrated sharing tools and push notifications. Launching mid 2011.

Measuring Word of Mouth

• Each month, a survey is sent to a random sample of active members to collect data on WOM activity

• Members report on any conversations they had that month, how many people were involved in those conversations, where they took place and what was discussed

• Overall offline word of mouth reach is then calculated, along with where these conversations are happening (school, work, friend's house) and the most popular topics of conversation.

In the past year, Random Buzzers members have reached more than 90,000 people through offline word of mouth.

Key Metrics and Results

63,000+ Random Buzzers Members

Engagement

• 20,000+ Monthly Visits

• 25+ Minutes per Member Visit

WOM

• 50,000+ Offline WOM Conversations

• 90,000+ Consumers Reached Offline

User-Generated Content (UCG)

• 14,000+ UGC Objects (photos, images, videos)

• 13,000+ Books Read/Added to Member Bookshelves

• 45,000+ Text and Feedback Items

• 3,700+ Book Reviews

• 2,500+ Author Questions

Brand Affinity/Loyalty

• 88% indicated Random Buzzers has improved their perception of Random House

Purchase Intent

• 79% indicated Random Buzzers has increased their likelihood to purchase from Random House

Link to Your Creative Materials:

Program live at www.randombuzzers.com

Case study description at

http://www.slideshare.net/affinitive/random-house-random-buzzers

Copyright (c) DM2PRO 2009, All rights reserved.